Toshiba Libretto W105 review

At this point Toshiba’s dualscreen Libretto W105 shouldn’t need much of an introduction — or at least after glancing at the picture above we figure it won’t. It looks like a laptop straight out of the future. And it kind of is. It’s the sort of clamshell gadget we’ve seen rendered and rendered for years, but that’s never made it to market… until now that is. In celebration of Toshiba’s 25 years in the laptop business, the company’s gotten bolder than ever, and it hasn’t just created a gadget with two seven-inch capacitive touchscreens, but it’s actually brought it to market. Sure, it’s only available for a very limited run, and at a lofty $1,100, only die-hard gadget geeks are bound to fork over the cash. That said, it’s still one of the most intriguing devices we’ve seen all year, and that’s saying something. And it’s even more compelling when you consider that packs the parts of a 12- or 13-inch ultraportable, including an Intel Pentium processor, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD and also runs Windows 7. But that’s exactly what’s wrong with the Libretto — it looks like the future, but it’s held back by modern day laptop parts and software. We’ve spent quite some time with the W105 — we typed half of this review on the bottom screen! — so you’ll want to hit the break to find out just what we’re talking about.

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Toshiba Libretto W105 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba AC100 smartbook preview: what were you expecting?

Despite the downright sexy hardware, it was no surprise that the Toshiba AC100 (which has just been launched in the UK) didn’t review very well: Android just isn’t ready to give an enjoyable smartbook experience. Our hands-on experience with the laptop at IFA did nothing to disabuse us of this notion. Again, the hardware is pretty great, a nice order of magnitude thinner and lighter than most Atom netbooks, and despite the razor thin build, Toshiba still managed to put a pretty great keyboard and trackpad in here. Unfortunately, the software just isn’t good. In fact, it isn’t even “alright,” since Toshiba has put a bunch of customizations on top of stock Android 2.1, including the same lame launcher we just saw on the Folio, and two extra browsers. We appreciate the effort, but if you’re not prepared to go all-in, Samsung-style, recent history has shown that it’s better to just leave well enough alone. Check out a quick video walkthrough after the break.

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Toshiba AC100 smartbook preview: what were you expecting? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba’s CEVO-Engine is Cell on steroids, with an ultra-bright LED LCD to burn your eyeballs into submission

Toshiba will be happy to tell you that its upcoming CEVO-Engine, which launches early next year in a “sub-€5,000” TV designed by former B&O-fave design firm Jacob Jensen Design, is the best thing ever, but it takes some work to figure out just exactly why that’s the case. We did some digging, subjected our eyeballs to the display’s brilliance, and have our full thoughts on the new tech after the break.

Continue reading Toshiba’s CEVO-Engine is Cell on steroids, with an ultra-bright LED LCD to burn your eyeballs into submission

Toshiba’s CEVO-Engine is Cell on steroids, with an ultra-bright LED LCD to burn your eyeballs into submission originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba AC100 Android smartbook hits the United Kingdom

Hey, there little guy! That’s the Toshiba AC100 — an Android 2.1 smartbook with Toshiba’s custom user interface — on show in the UK, where you can now grab one up. The 10.1-inch, 1.9-pounder has yet to show its face anywhere near the US, but as for specs it’s got a 1GHz Tegra 250 SoC, a 32GB SSD, 512MB of DDR2 memory, 802.11n WiFi, optional 3G, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and an HDMI port. While it’s listed on Amazon you still can’t actually order one of these bad boys stateside, but if you’re in the UK, you can grab one up for £292.52 (almost $450) for the non-3G model. Video of the little guy in action back in June is below.

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Toshiba AC100 Android smartbook hits the United Kingdom originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba fulfills your need for speed with UHS-I SDHC and microSDHC cards

Panasonic must be mighty annoyed right about now, because Toshiba’s seemingly got it trumped — when the first batch of lightning-quick UHS-I cards ship in November, Toshiba’s chips will be faster and larger on day one. As you can no doubt see immediately above, the latter company’s fielding full-size SDHC UHS-I cards at up to 32GB that promise maximum read and write times of 95MB/s and 80MB/s respectively, not to mention tiny microSDHC units that still manage a very respectable 40MB/s and 20MB/s. As usual, these numbers are fast and loose, so don’t be surprised if you get a good bit less in practice, but you should be able to rely on well above the quoted minimum transfer rate of 10MB/s. No ludicrous early-adopter memory prices quite yet, but we imagine your ego will write the necessary checks as soon Toshiba takes care of that. PR after the break.

Continue reading Toshiba fulfills your need for speed with UHS-I SDHC and microSDHC cards

Toshiba fulfills your need for speed with UHS-I SDHC and microSDHC cards originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The state of household robots in Japan: looking pretty great

This crazy looking little fellow is Toshiba‘s ApriPoco robot, and we couldn’t want to meet him more — especially in his updated form. Designed as a home assistance bot, ApriPoco can learn to control electrical appliances using both IR and verbal commands. He’s got some fine company in Japan, too, where household robots are starting to take off. As you’ll see in the Japanese news report (which is embedded below), there are robots to help you do the dishes, move furniture, and even robotic wheelchairs to help you get around. Really, the only question that remains for us is… when do we move? Here’s to the future.

Continue reading The state of household robots in Japan: looking pretty great

The state of household robots in Japan: looking pretty great originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba StorE TV+ drive connects up to 2TB of media directly to your HDTV

Feel like connecting a HTPC or even one of the many streamers to your HDTV is overkill? Toshiba’s new StorE TV+ is prepared to quietly retain up to 2TB of media (in various formats, check after the break for specs) until called upon, when it can play them back via HDMI, no connected PC required. It can also connect to PCs or other DLNA devices (like, coincidentally enough, Toshiba’s new HDTVs) networked via Ethernet and the included WiFi dongle or load files directly from memory cards and USB drives. Even with all that, a lack of access to internet video sources makes the £199 MSRP a tough sell even ith 2TB of space at the ready, but if it works its way into a TV bundle then there may be buyers willing to bite when it ships next month, while an eSATA hard drive only StorE.D10 model will follow later this year for an unknown price.

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Toshiba StorE TV+ drive connects up to 2TB of media directly to your HDTV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba Places to deliver web content across all Toshiba screens

Toshiba Folio

Great devices aren’t great without content and if you want it done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself. For Toshiba that means a new online content and services portal called Toshiba Places. The point of this companion software is to ensure that all said company’s screens have a similar look and feel which will bring a consistent experience to every size screen while still being optimized for a TV or mobile phone (for example). Places will help you gain access to your own content or share it in your social networks as well as offer access to applications and various other online content. Exactly what premium content is available wil vary region by region and so until the US announcement comes we’ll have to wait to learn which of our favorite sources will be included.

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Toshiba Places to deliver web content across all Toshiba screens originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba outs Lumileo pico projectors, only one of which requires a plug

Toshiba’s new LED-based pico projectors won’t shake the world with VGA resolutions, 14 lumens and just 80 minutes of battery life, but we have to admit the Lumileo P100 and Lumileo M200’s focusing dial and keypad do look a spot more stylish than some of the cubes and rectangles we’ve tried. And while we’ve just pretty much described the P100 model in full, the M200 has an additional feature that might be worth your while — like the 3M MPro, it plays back video (including DivX), Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files directly from 2GB of internal memory or your microSD card of choice, with no attached PC required. Otherwise, both project up to 60-inch pictures from VGA or “TV in” ports not shown here, and both will appear in Europe to claim an unspecified amount of that continent’s discretionary cash during the fourth quarter of this year. PR after the break.

Continue reading Toshiba outs Lumileo pico projectors, only one of which requires a plug

Toshiba outs Lumileo pico projectors, only one of which requires a plug originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba finally dives into Blu-ray 3D with BDX3100 player, offers up BDX1100 if stereo’s not your style

Seems like Toshiba bit off more Blu-ray 3D than it could chew this year — the Japanese firm’s just announced that the new BDX3100KB will be its first set-top stereoscopic player, never mind the BDX3000 it announced at CES. Still, we’re willing to forgive and forget if the new machine (replete with DivX and MKV playback, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround, and instant playback of AVCHD footage from connected camcorders) makes it stateside sometime soon — both it and the relatively boring BDX1100 standard Blu-ray unit are presently slated for a UK release (at unspecified prices) in October of this year. PR after the break.

Continue reading Toshiba finally dives into Blu-ray 3D with BDX3100 player, offers up BDX1100 if stereo’s not your style

Toshiba finally dives into Blu-ray 3D with BDX3100 player, offers up BDX1100 if stereo’s not your style originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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